


They've Got Pills For That

by PeaceAndLongLife



Category: It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia
Genre: Best Friends, Coming Out, Drabble, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-16
Updated: 2017-02-16
Packaged: 2018-09-24 19:33:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 868
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9782021
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PeaceAndLongLife/pseuds/PeaceAndLongLife
Summary: Mac is officially out and Charlie has news of his own.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Just a little something I wrote after watching the newest episode. Takes place after 12x06

   It was three a.m at the bar that night. The front door was open, allowing the moonlight to softly light the large room, while the breeze outside would occasionally pick up and the crisp air would circulate. Mac was cold, but he put up with it because he knew that the cold helped Charlie think.

   They had been sitting on the floor, against the wall and each other for about an hour now. Neither had spoken yet, each waiting for the other speak first.

   How the rest of the gang had managed to sleep that night after the day they all had was lost on the both of them. The lottery ticket debacle wasn't anything out of the ordinary, but what _was_ out of the ordinary, was the very sudden and brief sincerity of Mac's not-so-groundbreaking announcement.

   And for whatever reason, Mac's words had hit Charlie full force, like a kick to the chest. (Like the one he gave Mac earlier that day) He didn't know _why_ he was feeling the way he did, and not knowing was even a greater scare. Charlie wasn't good with emotions, especially with identifying and articulating them.

   Mac, on the other hand, was very good with emotions. He could be angry one minute and happy the next. He was an emotional chameleon. This is one of the _many_ reasons that Charlie and Mac had been friends for so long.

   It was also why Charlie felt safe talking about his feelings -or lack-there-of to him. "So..." He begins awkwardly, lifting his head off of Mac's shoulder so he could talk more comfortably. His voice seemed to break the silence of night with a boom. "You're gay." He says more quietly. It wasn't a question, more of a statement of fact.

   Mac sighs gently. The words waiting on his tongue were becoming less heavy the more he repeated them. His heart not pounding nearly as hard as the time on the cruise. "Yeah, I'm gay."

   Eye contact was a hard thing for Charlie, which was why he began absentmindedly playing with Mac's hand. It gave him an excuse to keep his vision elsewhere.

   "For how long?" Charlie asks. He was beginning to have the feeling that if he didn't ask his questions now, within the 24 hours of initial statement, he would lose his confidence and would never be able to ask his burning questions ever again.

   "I'm scared to say that I don't know. I have an obligation now as an out man to magically have all the answers. I should already know this stuff. I had thought that once you come out officially, that you'd see the world different. I thought I'd be filled with the seed of knowledge, but nothing has changed, and everything is the same." Mac was sad. Charlie knew that emotion.

   "Do you...I don't know... _feel_ anything when you see a hot dude?"

   Mac purses his lips in confusion. "What do you mean? Are you askin' if my dick gets hard? If so, then yeah, I feel _all the time._ What guy doesn't?"

   It was in a small and scared voice that Charlie admits something that had been weighing on his mind for a long time. "I don't."

   Mac laughs, but not in a condescending way like Dennis does. "If you need help man, they've got pills for that."

   "That's not what I-" Charlie's throat tightens and he grips Mac's hands tight. "-that's not what I meant."

   "What _do you_ mean then?" Mac turns towards him with concern. He could see how hard this all was for Charlie and if him holding his hand was what he needed to do for comfort, he'd be more than happy to offer one.

   "I try to feel things, for anyone, but It doesn't work. I don't _want_ to go out and bang a whole bunch of people like you or Dennis." Charlie now knew what the kick to his chest feeling was. It was him feeling the uncontrollable urge to confide his own emotions, even if he didn't know what they were.

  Charlie was a mess, and no one knew that better than himself.

   Mac was having a hard time grasping the concept of _not_ wanting sex, but he was trying. "What about those bang-dates I always set up for you?"

   Charlie just shrugs. "We talk, we eat, I send her on her way with a polite hug."

   Mac looks down and notes their intertwined hands. "Okay, so no banging. What about touching? You seem to like that."

   "Touching is nice, but you know, not just anyone. I enjoy touching you."

   Mac smiles, feeling genuinely special and _wanted._ He never got that feeling with anyone else. "We're best friends for a reason, man."

"Best friends forever." Charlie curls up closer to Mac's side. And when Mac kisses Charlie's forehead, it made _him_ feel special.

 

**•••**

 

   Dee was the first one to arrive at the bar that morning, and when she saw Charlie and Mac on the floor huddled close, she automatically assumed that they had too much to drink and passed out when really, they had spent the night talking and had only recently drifted off into a soundless sleep.

**Author's Note:**

> For all those ace Charlie fans out there <3


End file.
